The present invention relates to an absorbent article which exhibits excellent anitleakage properties and also gives excellent feel during use.
Various kinds of absorbent articles have been proposed in the conventional art. These articles include disposable diapers having a substantially elongate shape. The diaper""s components can include a liquid-permeable topsheet, a liquid-impermeable antileakage sheet, a liquid-retentive absorbent core, and an upstanding guard formed on longitudinal left and right opposing side portions of the diaper.
The conventional upstanding guard has a strip of elastic disposed on the distal end side, and the strip of elastic rises upwardly of the diaper. However, this structure fails to keep the guard sufficiently erect during use. Thus, the guard fails to give the desired leakage prevention effect.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,243 has proposed to arrange a plurality of elastic members on the upstanding guard, but the conventional upstanding guards have a plurality of elastic members that are not closely fitted to the wearer""s skin, thus failing to attain sufficient leakage prevention properties.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an absorbent article such as a disposable diaper in which an upstanding guard exhibits a good fit to the wearer""s skin, and the leakage prevention properties are improved.
The present invention has achieved the above object by providing an absorbent article including a liquid-permeable topsheet, a liquid-impermeable antileakage sheet and a liquid-retentive absorbent core, having a substantially elongate shape, and being provided with upstanding guards on the longitudinal left and right opposing side portions of the absorbent article, wherein the upstanding guards are provided with a plurality of upstanding guard elastic members so as to form a gather over the entire region in the widthwise direction of the upstanding guard, and wherein the upstanding guard is sectioned into a free end region, a central region and a basal end region so as to trisect it in the widthwise direction, the stress of the free end region being larger than that of the other regions.
The invention, in part, pertains to the central region having smaller stress than that of the free end region and the basal region. Also, the stress of the free end region can be from 10 cN to 100 cN, the stress of the basal end region can be from 5 cN to 90 cN and the stress of the central region is from 5 cN to 80 cN.